Pakistani-American VC Asad Jamal Invested Early in China's Baidu

Pakistani-American venture capitalist Asad Jamal hit it big with Baidu, China's search giant worth over $90 billion in market capitalization today. Jamal founded ePlanet Capital in Silicon Valley in 1999 and became an early investor in Baidu at its founding in 2000.

"I first experienced thisChinese techdynamism when, inspired by the late-1990s Internet start-up culture, I moved toSilicon Valleyand founded ePlanet Capital, a venture capital firm. I was new to the field and unsure what to expect. In 2000, I met Robin Li, a Chinese entrepreneur in his twenties who was seeking funding for his new company, Baidu. Based on conventional investment criteria, Baidu’s chances of success seemed low. The company had no track record, limited funding, and an inexperienced team, yet they were aiming to challenge search giants Google and Yahoo. But I soon learned that in the new Internet world, these obstacles were perfectly normal and surmountable by visionary, passionate entrepreneurs with big dreams and ideas. Consequently, my firm went ahead and invested in Robin’s vision. Within five years of that first meeting, Baidu went from little more than an idea to being the leader in China’s Internet search industry, leaving Google and Yahoo far behind. Today, it is one of China’s top three Internet companies, forming the so-called BAT triumvirate along withAlibabaand Tencent. Robin himself is now the Larry Page (or Bill Gates) of China, with a net worth of over $10 billion".

Jamal believes that China offers a good example for Pakistan to follow to develop its owntechnology businessto "break its cycle of poverty". Here's an excerpt from an article he wrote for Project Syndicate:

"The good news for Pakistan and other countries in a similar position is that tech start-ups require far fewer resources than traditional large-scale industrial firms. Whereas the latter typically need hundreds of millions of dollars in capital, plant and machinery, and bank loans, tech companies need only a small team of smart people, computers, modest funding, and mentorship. Young Pakistani entrepreneurs are just as well placed as their Chinese counterparts were two decades ago: they need big ideas and encouragement to build on them. Here, of course, the provision of venture capital is essential. Pakistan should therefore establish a national venture capital fund to promote technology entrepreneurship. Moreover, China’s rise as an economic and technology leader gives Pakistan a unique opportunity to learn from its neighbor and collaborate with it in education, science, and technology. And Pakistan should leverage its historical ties with US and British universities in these areas".

Here's a video of Asad Jamal's speech at Islamabad National University's inaugural event also attended by Prime Minister Imran Khan:

‘Don’t miss the boat’, #Pakistan #PMImranKhan tells #investors in #Dubai. “This is the time to come to Pakistan, when it is just going on the upswing. This is the time to invest in the country – and don’t miss the boat” #WGS2019 #UAE http://bit.ly/2Sp1t7f

Addressing the World Government Summit in Dubai, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday made a strong investment pitch for his country, advising investors “don’t miss the boat” as Pakistan goes on a business-friendly “upswing”.

Khan, a former cricket player, mentioned a wide-ranging “ambitious reforms programme”, which also includes various opportunities for businesses “to make money”, tax reforms, deficit cuts, tourism development, and a new visa regime.

“This is the time to come to Pakistan, when it is just going on the upswing. This is the time to invest in the country – and don’t miss the boat,” Khan told a huge crowd of summit delegates during his main address at the Madinat Jumeriah resort.

Pakistan, Khan said, is already seeing “optimism and investors are coming into our country. We feel that this is the time that Pakistan will take off”.

He said Shaikh Mohammad had told him earlier “you must allow businesses to make money; investors must make profits. And the reason is simple… if they can make money, more people come and invest. So this is what we’ve done”.

Khan added: “We’ve started working on ease of doing business… we’re changing our tax laws, which were very cumbersome.”

He also pointed out that Pakistan has “the best tourism potential… Pakistan has probably one of the best mountain scenery anywhere in the world. Half of the world’s highest peaks are in Pakistan; we have 1,000km of coastline; the oldest historical monuments, as old as anywhere in the world; we’ve the Indus Valley Civilisation; ancient cities”.

Pakistan, Khan added, is also poised to benefit from a unique offering of “religious tourism”.

“We have the ‘Makkah’ and ‘Madinah’ for the Sikhs – the Sikh religion has its two holiest sites in Pakistan and we’ve just opened those sites for Sikhs.”

There are important Buddhist sites too and Sufi shrines all over Pakistan, he said.

“And we’ve opened a visa regime. For the first time in Pakistan, we have 70 countries which can come in and get a visa at the airport.

“What we’re doing is, we’re opening up the country; we’re opening up for tourism and investors.”

Asad founded Good Planet, a non-profit global foundation, to support educational projects and relieve world poverty. Good Planet works with the UN Education Envoy in supporting achievement of Millennium Development Goals in Education, particularly in underdeveloped countries in Africa and Asia. He also sponsored Singularity University in Silicon Valley, which seeks to utilize exponential technologies to solve the world’s pressing challenges. He graduated with a B.Sc. (Honors) from the London School of Economics, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.

#Pakistan Citizen's Portal #app, launched last year by #PMImranKhan, wins 2nd spot among 4,646 #MobileApps from 87 countries competing in #Dubai at the #WGS earlier this week. #Indonesia came out on top while the #UnitedStates stood at the third spot. #PTI https://www.dawn.com/news/1463589

The citizen's portal app was developed by a team in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa "free of cost" in a "record time of 45 days", the prime minister said.

"This is the first time any government-owned mobile application [has] reached this level in Pakistan."

So far, around 250,000 out of 420,000 complaints that were registered through the app have been resolved with 55 per cent 'satisfactory' feedback from the public, according to statistics posted by Prime Minister Khan.

The application has a 4.5 rating on Google Play and a 3.5 rating on Apple Store.

The World Government Summit is a non-profit organisation, that holds an annual event in Dubai. According to its website, the World Government Summit is a "global platform dedicated to shaping the future of governments worldwide". The organisation aims to "set the agenda for the next generation of governments" to tackle both global and local challenges with the help of technological innovations.

The event held by the World Government Summit serves as "knowledge exchange platform" by bringing together governments and private entrepreneurs. Leaders, entrepreneurs and experts from over 150 countries are invited every year.

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